BIGGER AND BETTER ATLANTIS HOTELS

Soon, rooms at the Middle East’s most instagrammed hotel – Atlantis The Palm – will look nothing like those on social media – and here’s why: The iconic resort’s 1,539 rooms and suites are set to get a Dh360 million makeover. Spaced out over the next three years, the project, which is already underway, aims to refurbish 50 rooms and suites every six weeks, which means you’ll probably end up staying in a swanky new room sooner than you think.

UAE-based interior design studio WA International is carrying out the task of injecting new life into the interiors. The new rooms, we’re told, will draw on the resort’s overarching underwater world theme (above right). The upgrades also extend to all-day dining restaurant Kaleidoscope (which will re-open in September), Ayamna Bar, Nasimi Beach and The Imperial Club.

Atlantis The Palm’s fresh new rooms should be completed in 2019, the same year Atlantis’ second Dubai property, the Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences (top), is expected to launch on the crescent with 231 residences and 795 guest rooms and suites.

Dubai won’t be the only city set to welcome new Atlantis resorts. China will have its own ocean-themed resort, the Atlantis Sanya, Hainan (above left), in 2018. The massive resort will have 1,314 guestrooms, 154 suites and five underwater suites, 21 dining options and an Aquaventure Waterpark. On the Hawaiian island of Oahu, the Atlantis Ko Olina is taking form across 15 acres of land, gearing up to be the most expensive Atlantis yet.